Faith: Christian leaders meet to discuss issues, missions

By Amanda Banks / The News Herald

Published: Thursday, September 12, 2013 at 08:57 AM.

Although more
del
icate issues were discussed at the summit Thursday, they are not the sole focus of rescue missions’ ministries. For instance, the
Panama
City Rescue Mission serves many veterans; Fox estimated one in three men at the mission are military veterans, with the VA predicting that number could multiply four times in the next three years.

“Most of them are Gulf War and forward; they’re young guys,” said Fox, adding that many of the people who seek shelter in his mission are “younger and younger,” and that there are increasingly more suburban, middle-class types.

Only about 20 percent of his mission’s population could be characterized as “vagabond,” which people often think of regarding the homeless population, Fox said. Most of the people there are women, children and veterans.

“We’re helping the community understand; homelessness is not your preconceived idea,” Fox said.

Association president John Ashmen was proud of the work done by rescue missions throughout the continent. All of the missions are autonomous and they represent many denominations, but they have the same mission: “to provide help and hope to the hungry, the homeless, the abused, the addicted.”

“The government is all about helping people in their physical poverty. Rescue missions are about helping peope in their spiritual, their relational poverty.” he said.

The Association of Gospel Ministries provides food, clothing and shelter for millions of people every year and graduates thousands of people from its addiction recovery programs. The
Panama
City
Rescue
Mission
also provides some job training.

PANAMA CITYBEACH — Sixty CEOs from rescue missions throughout the U.S. and Canada are gathered in Panama CityBeach this week to discuss current issues their ministries are facing at the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions (AGRM) Annual CEO Summit.

AGRM is North America’s oldest and largest network of independent, faith-based crisis shelters and addiction recovery centers, according to association president John Ashmen. They discussed issues ranging from the controversial to the spiritual.

“How do we take a stance on what our beliefs are?” asked Billy Fox, pastor and executive director of the Panama City Rescue Mission and Pathways Ministries, speaking about controversial issues such as how the organization’s religious beliefs affect treatment of gays and lesbians.

“We love them; we want to help them. How do we balance” our beliefs with theirs?” he asked.

The subject was discussed at length during Thursday morning’s session, with the focus on how to avoid excluding gays and lesbians without compromising anyone’s beliefs.

Fox also spoke of trying to find balance with current laws.

“We don’t want illegal [immigrants] to starve to death or freeze to death. How do we, in our social Christian approach, deal with that and not break the law and not drive people away from us?”

Although more delicate issues were discussed at the summit Thursday, they are not the sole focus of rescue missions’ ministries. For instance, the Panama City Rescue Mission serves many veterans; Fox estimated one in three men at the mission are military veterans, with the VA predicting that number could multiply four times in the next three years.

“Most of them are Gulf War and forward; they’re young guys,” said Fox, adding that many of the people who seek shelter in his mission are “younger and younger,” and that there are increasingly more suburban, middle-class types.

Only about 20 percent of his mission’s population could be characterized as “vagabond,” which people often think of regarding the homeless population, Fox said. Most of the people there are women, children and veterans.

“We’re helping the community understand; homelessness is not your preconceived idea,” Fox said.

Association president John Ashmen was proud of the work done by rescue missions throughout the continent. All of the missions are autonomous and they represent many denominations, but they have the same mission: “to provide help and hope to the hungry, the homeless, the abused, the addicted.”

“The government is all about helping people in their physical poverty. Rescue missions are about helping peope in their spiritual, their relational poverty.” he said.

The Association of Gospel Ministries provides food, clothing and shelter for millions of people every year and graduates thousands of people from its addiction recovery programs. The Panama City Rescue Mission also provides some job training.

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